New Help for Patients

New Help for Patients

Article excerpt

A patient whose own heart condition led to an eight-year struggle for diagnosis has seen how a hospital has invested in new equipment to spot the condition.

Rebecca Bone, 47, of Saltburn, fought for years to get a proper diagnosis of her arrhythmia, a potentially fatal condition which affects the rhythmic beating of her heart.

She had to quit her teaching career because the condition can cause dizziness, sickness and palpitations as well as strokes and cardiac arrest. She finally got help at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough where she underwent a five-hour operation to cure her condition.

Now the former teacher is doing volunteer work for South Cleveland Heart Fund, the charity which bought pounds 200,000 of equipment for James Cook last year.

The charity paid for state of the art technology and is set to buy a series of loop monitors which help spot conditions like Rebecca's.

During a visit to the hospital, Rebecca said: "I want people like me to get early diagnoses because it ruined my life. …